


In Which What Osiris Couldn't Do, Is Done

by hawkewards



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:55:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27120755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawkewards/pseuds/hawkewards
Summary: Osiris knows Saint-14 is gone. What he doesn't know, is that the pluckiness of one warlock will prove him wrong.
Relationships: Female Guardian/Petra Venj, Osiris/Saint-14 (Destiny)
Kudos: 31





	In Which What Osiris Couldn't Do, Is Done

**Author's Note:**

> feat. several of my friends guardians (and also my other two lmao)  
> p.s.: osiris has hair and bungie CANNOT take that from me !!!!!

“As much as it pains me to ask this of you, Guardian…I believe Osiris needs your help.”

Hermia blinked and cast a quick glance behind her, but she was the only Guardian standing near Ikora in the bazaar. Ikora quietly chuckled.

“I mean you, Hermia,” she said. Hermia absently began fiddling with the front snaps of her robes.

“Me?” she asked. “Shouldn’t um…like Ophelia be in charge of that?”

Ikora smiled as she looked down at her boots.

“As much as I trust Saladin’s Young Wolf and her ability to get things done,” she said, turning her gaze back to Hermia. “I know that Osiris would prefer a warlock’s help over that of anyone else. And, much like your friend Ophelia, I know that _you_ are just as accomplished a Guardian.”

“We’ll go, Ikora,” Romeo said as he fizzled into sight next to Hermia. “You can count on us to help Osiris with…whatever it is he needs help with. Um. What _does_ he need help with, anyway?”

“You’ll have to ask him for specifics,” Ikora said. “I think it must have been painful enough for him to come to me to contact the Guardians to begin with.”

Hermia continued fiddling with her snaps and dropped her gaze. Romeo bumped into her head and she looked up at him, then turned to Ikora with an almost pained gaze. She sighed a reluctant, blustery sigh.

“Okay, we’ll go,” she said. Quieter, to Ro, she muttered, “Hopefully it won’t be anything _too_ big.”

Ikora smiled. She placed a gentle hand on Hermia’s shoulder.

“Even if it is,” she said, and Hermia looked at her, blinking in surprise. “I’m sure you can handle it. You seem to forget I saw you during the that last fight in the City against the Legion. I know you can hold your own, Hermia. Even without your Light, you’re a formidable opponent. I can only imagine what more you can do with the Light in your hands once again.”

Hermia’s cheeks felt hot and she laced her fingers together, unlaced them and wrung her hands.

“I’m really just…good support,” she said quietly. Ikora smiled again and squeezed her shoulder.

“You may believe what you wish,” she said. “But know this above all else -- _I_ believe in you.”

Hermia pressed her lips tight together and stiffly nodded.

“Thank you, Ikora,” she squeaked. Ikora’s smile never wavered.

“You’re welcome,” she said pleasantly. “Now -- you best hurry to Mercury.”

* * *

“Do you think Brother Vance knows Osiris is…like, _right_ here?” Ro whispered in Hermia’s ear as she sneaked around the vex and cabal and blinked toward the massive machine spinning behind a shimmering barrier.

“Between you and me?” Hermia asked as she blinked past a goblin and trotted for the machine. “I think Brother Vance is weird.”

“Yeah.” Romeo nodded thoughtfully where he was hidden in Hermia’s belt. “Me too.”

She approached the barrier and looked around for a button or lever or something to allow her access. A triangular door opened in the center of the wall and she stepped through. The door closed behind her and a volley of purple vex fire erupted against it.

“Guardian,” said a voice near the center of the machine, and Hermia pulled her eyes away from the barrier and came toward it. She plucked off her helmet and smoothed down her messed hair and came to a stop in front of Osiris. She looked him over in what she hoped was a discrete manner (it wasn’t) and tucked her helmet beneath her arm. She cleared her throat.

“You must, um. Be Osiris?”

“Stars above,” Osiris muttered, turning fully to face Hermia. He folded his arms across his chest. “I presume you are the Guardian Ikora sent me?”

Hermia shifted her helmet to her other side.

“I am,” she said. Osiris stared at her beneath the shadow of his hood and she wished she could read his hidden expression. He hummed, sounding bored.

“I suppose you’ll do, if no one else is available,” he said dryly.

“Osiris!”

His ghost popped into sight and he looked up at her. She spun in irritation, then came forward.

“Ignore him,” she said. “He’s been grumpy since we got here. I’m his Ghost -- Sagira.”

“I’m Romeo,” said Hermia’s Ghost as he appeared in the air next to her. “This is Hermia. She was on the fireteam that took down Crota _and_ Oryx.”

 _That_ little tidbit had Osiris turning a more scrutinizing look upon her, and Hermia shifted from foot to foot and silently cursed Romeo and his nonexistent but enormous mouth.

“I was just support,” she said quietly.

“You were _not_ ,” Romeo said, indignant. “Without your nova bomb, that knight would’ve killed Ophee and you know it, so be quiet. Anyway!” He spun, turning back to Sagira and Osiris. “You couldn’t be in better hands, Osiris. So what do you need?”

Osiris hummed again, less bored this time, and approached Hermia with new found recognition.

“What you’re standing on Guardian is a machine I built shortly after I left the Forest,” he said. “After I spoke at length with the last Guardian who helped me--”

“That was Ophelia,” Romeo whispered in Hermia’s ear. “I heard _all_ about that little trip from Des.”

“--I decided it may be time for me to try and…right some wrongs I had caused.”

This last part Osiris spoke quietly, his attention away from Hermia now and instead turned toward the spinning portion of the massive machine they stood in. Hermia glanced at Romeo, who bobbed in the air in a sort of shrugging gesture.

“It’s called the Sundial,” Osiris said. “It has the ability to traverse timelines here on Mercury by using the power of the Infinite Forest, with the potential of extending that to all other worlds. You saw the Legion troops on your way here?”

“Um. Yep.” Hermia nodded. She hadn’t fought any of them. “I saw them.”

“They’re trying to take control of this Sundial from me,” Osiris said flatly. “So they might use it and change the outcome of the Red War.”

Hermia leaned back in surprise.

“They…they can’t _really_ do that, can they?” she asked.

“They can, given half the chance,” Osiris said gravely. “That’s why you’re here, Guardian. To keep that from happening.”

“Oh.” Hermia nodded slowly. She shifted her helmet back to her other arm. “Alright. Okay. Um.” She exhaled a short, shaky sigh and nodded again, once this time, determined. “Okay. I’m ready. What do I need to do?”

* * *

“Okay that -- that was _crazy_.”

Hermia, at Osiris’ behest, had collected a handful of other Guardians to help her complete a run through the Sundial; she had chosen her Crota and Oryx fireteam. Lexee grinned and rattled Hermia gently by the shoulder.

“That was _fun_ ,” she said brightly.

“Define fun,” Hermia panted, and she brushed off her robes.

“I’d say burning through a few hundred Legion troops counts as fun,” Ophelia said, spinning her hand cannon once before holstering it. “They deserve it.”

“They deserve far worse. But this was a good start,” Titania said as she checked her weapons over. Hermia blew out another breath and nodded along, though she wasn’t sure she would actually volunteer to run through the Sundial again.

“Hey, Hermie.”

Romeo came zipping up to her, spinning.

“I found something weird. Come here a second,” he said, and she followed him to a flickering gun on the ground. She knelt in front of it and tilted her head.

“What is it?” she asked. Romeo twirled.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s giving off some sort of weird signal. One I’ve never seen before.”

Hermia thrummed her fingertips against her boots, then carefully grabbed the gun. It flickered in her hands, being whole one moment and half-there the next and gone entirely and then back again. She turned it over in her hands.

“Weird,” she agreed, and she glanced up as the timeline dissolved around them. In a moment, they all found their footing on the Sundial’s shimmering floor.

“Well?” asked Osiris.

“One psion commander dead and dusted,” Des said cheerfully, spinning next to Ophelia’s head.

“You’ll have to invite us back to do that again sometime,” Tanis said.

“I’d planned to,” Osiris said. “There are hundreds of thousands of timelines to deal with. Any Guardian who wants to assist me in clearing them out is more than welcome.”

“We’ll spread the word, then,” Val said. She glanced back at Hermia, who still scrutinized the strange gun she held. “You coming, Hermia?”

“Huh?” She looked up. “Oh. Yeah. I’ll catch up.”

Osiris watched Hermia come up to him as the others headed out of the Sundial, laughing with each other. Hermia extended the flickering weapon to Osiris.

“I found this in there,” she said. He looked down at it, frowning.

“Strange,” he said, and he took the gun. It flickered in his hands the same way it had flickered in hers. “Very strange…”

“Any ideas?” Hermia asked after a moment.

“No,” Osiris said, still looking at the gun. Something about it seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place why. He looked up at Hermia. “But give me some time to study it. I may yet be able to determine what it is.”

* * *

Hermia found herself once again in the Sundial, this time with a new group of Guardians. They blazed through the cabal and the vex with startling speed. Hermia more or less trailed along behind them all and provided covering fire when it was needed, a few grenades thrown there, a few rifts planted here. She saved one hunter from a sure resurrection when she grabbed him and blinked out of the landing zone of a cabal troop carrier.

“Thanks,” he huffed, then went running back into the fray.

“Y’know,” Romeo mused in her ear as she slid next to a titan down on one knee and laid down a healing rift. “You could be shooting more.”

“I think everyone else is on top of that,” Hermia said as the titan clapped her once on the shoulder in thanks. She raised her pulse rifle and fired a few rounds into the back of a legionary. A different warlock then incinerated the cabal with a grenade. “Besides -- I prefer running support.”

“Hm.”

They killed the psion commander and Hermia felt the flickering gun Osiris had returned to her solidify against her back. She said, “Oh!” and quickly pulled it around.

“A shotgun?” she asked, looking up at Ro as he materialized next to her.

“Huh,” he said. “Wonder what’s so special about it.”

“I dunno,” Hermia said. She ran her fingertips across the barrel, where a golden XIV was inlaid. She frowned. “Hopefully Osiris does, though.”

The timeline melted away and the Guardians stood on the Sundial once more. Some waved to Osiris as they filed out, others merely transmatted directly to their ships and were gone. Hermia trotted up to Osiris as the last of the Guardians left.

“This is what that gun turned into,” she said, extending it to him. He stared down at it for a moment.

“It can’t be,” he said, voice quiet as death, and he pulled back his hood. Gingerly, as though cradling an infant, he took the gun into his hands. Hermia glanced at Romeo, who looked at her and spun his points around his core.

“Um. Osiris?”

“This weapon…” Osiris turned it over in his hands like it was made of glass. “This weapon belonged to Saint-14.”

“Belonged to who?” Hermia asked before she could stop herself. Romeo spun indignantly.

“Did you _ever_ listen during Ikora’s lessons? I swear to the Traveler,” he sighed. “Saint-14 was _legendary._ Probably the greatest Guardian who ever lived, or at least until Ophee came along.”

“Oh.” Hermia nodded once, but her expression was still devoid of recognition. “Okay.”

“Saint was the best of us in both strength and spirit,” Osiris said. “His death took more from the City than Ghaul and his Legion could ever have.”

Hermia nodded solemnly, but she had seen firsthand the destruction Ghaul had unleashed and found it hard to believe the death of one Guardian, no matter how great, could have been more impactful than the decimation suffered by the Lightless of the City.

“Okay,” she said. “So what does it mean that we found his shotgun in the Sundial?”

Osiris frowned and looked back at the gun.

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll need some time to consider this, Guardian.”

“Alright.” Hermia nodded. “We’ll…just come back, then?”

* * *

“ _...we will meet again, solnyshka. I believe that._ ”

“Play it again,” Osiris said quietly.

“I think eight times in a row is enough,” Sagira said, spinning her points around her core. Osiris looked up at her, frowning. She rolled her eye in its socket and floated down until she hovered above the shotgun laid out on Osiris’s desk. They had left the Sundial in the hands of one of his projections, who would be a suitable stand in while Osiris worked on this shotgun conundrum. Only he hadn’t been working -- he’d had Sagira replay Saint’s last message to him on loop.

“Osiris,” Sagira said. “You’re not going to make any kind of progress figuring out where this gun came from if you keep moping.”

Osiris frowned at her. He gestured to the shotgun.

“There is no progress to be made, Sagira,” he said flatly. “The only remarkable thing about this gun is the fact it belongs to someone long dead.”

“And the weird signal it’s giving off,” Sagira deadpanned. Osiris leaned back in surprise.

“What?” he asked.

“Well, I would have told you, oh, five recitations ago, but you were too busying being sad and blaming yourself for things like usual,” Sagira said. “The shotgun was giving off a signal that clicked with another signal someplace in the Forest. I couldn’t quite pinpoint it, but I narrowed it down to a region and a timeline. I bet if you sent that warlock who’s been helping you she could check it out.”

Osiris stood, his chair toppling backward from the sudden force.

“ _Why_ didn’t you tell me earlier?” he snapped as he snatched up the gun and strode toward the cargo bay door of his ship. Sagira zipped along behind him.

“You seemed content to wallow in despair,” she said. He shot her a displeased glare and snapped his hood into place as he exited his ship. The Sundial was as he’d left it, and as soon as he stepped onto its base, his golden projection vanished.

“Contact that Guardian,” he told Sagira sourly. She spun around his head.

“I did. About an hour ago, actually,” she said. “She should be here shortly. Her ghost said they were finishing up a couple things way over in the Dreaming City, but that they’d be here as soon as they could.”

Osiris frowned up at her again. She bobbed in a sort of shrugging motion.

“Does this mean you’re done moping?” she asked expectantly.

* * *

“Whew!” Romeo shook the dust off his shell. “Well, _that_ was as fun as it always is.”

Hermia cut him a thoroughly displeased look as she waited for the titan and hunter in front of her to be finished speaking with Petra. Romeo spun around her.

“We’re going to Mercury after this, right?” he asked. “Remember -- Sagira had that weird signal she wanted us to check out.”

“Yeah,” Hermia nodded. “Can’t wait to see Osiris again.”

“I’m detecting a hint of sarcasm there,” Romeo said as the titan and hunter drifted past them, heads bent in conversation.

“I just get the feeling Osiris doesn’t like me very much,” Hermia sighed as she approached Petra, who had her attention fixed on a datapad in her hands. Hermia loitered for a few seconds in front of the Regent Commander before she spoke. “Are you busy?”

Petra’s head snapped up and she set her datapad aside.

“Hermia,” she said brightly, and she stepped forward and laid a gentle kiss on Hermia’s forehead. “I _am_ busy, but I’ll always make time for you, my dream.”

Hermia’s gray cheeks tinged pink like they did every time Petra kissed her and she smoothed the front of her robes.

“I’m also pretty busy,” she said. “I need to get back to Mercury. Osiris needs me for something else, but I wanted to come by.”

“We went through the ascendant plane again,” Romeo supplied helpfully. “It was the same as it always is. I keep looking out for something different, but I never see anything.”

“That’s quite alright, little light,” Petra said. “We’re keeping detailed notes, just in case some discrepancy does arise. Do you mind telling me what you’re doing on Mercury? I love hearing about your fieldwork.”

“Oh!” Hermia fidgeted with her hands. “It’s nothing too exciting--”

“We’re going to help Osiris save a lost hero of the City,” Romeo said. “I don’t know if you’ve heard the name Saint-14--”

“I’m afraid we didn’t do much study of City heroes during my schooling,” Petra said.

“Well,” Romeo continued, “he was probably the greatest titan who ever lived, but he got lost in the Infinite Forest on Mercury, which is this enormous vex simulation engine that Osiris -- he was the first Vanguard Commander -- sort of controls now. It’s kind of complicated, but the short of it is what we’re doing _is_ exciting.”

He pointedly looked at Hermia when he said that last part. She pinched her lips into an annoyed frown, then stuck out her tongue at him. He spun in irritation. Petra watched the exchange with a small, amused smile.

“Well, I didn’t understand much of that,” she said, “but it does sound like you two have your hands full with this Osiris character.”

“Yeah,” Hermia sighed. “We should probably get to Mercury.”

“Well.” Petra took Hermia’s hands in her own. “I’m glad you stopped by. Be safe, my dream. Perhaps when you’ve finished on Mercury, and when I can leave some of my duties to my corsairs, we can take a well-deserved break someplace. Maybe you can finally show me your Tower.”

Hermia smiled brightly, and she stood on her toes to kiss Petra’s cheek.

“I’d love that,” she said.

* * *

“Guardian! Good to see you again!”

Hermia raised her hand in a timid wave to Sagira, who spun away from Osiris and came toward her.

“Fair warning,” she whispered harshly. “Osiris is crabby.”

“Oh.” Hermia nodded. “Okay.”

She slowly approached the exiled warlock, nervously turning her helmet around in her hands.

“So. Um. What can I help you with, Osiris?” she asked quietly.

“I’m sure Sagira can tell you the specifics,” Osiris said flatly.

Sagira rolled her eye around its socket.

“Told you,” she said. “Anyway. That shotgun you found? We tracked -- well, _I_ tracked -- a weird signal it was giving off. It matched up with another signal someplace in the Forest. I’m _guessing_ its got something to do with Saint, since that signal is definitely in his timeline. If you could figure out what was going on there, Osiris would really appreciate it.”

Osiris looked to Sagira, frowning beneath his hood. She spun her points around her core.

“Care to add anything, Osiris?” she asked politely.

“No,” he said. “I don’t.”

“Okay, then,” Sagira sighed. She turned back to Hermia and Romeo. “You two better get going. Take that shotgun with you, too. It’ll act as sort of a…like a tuning fork, I guess. It should keep you on track in the Forest.”

“Okay,” Hermia said, nodding determinedly. She carefully took the shotgun from Osiris, who seemed almost reluctant to let it go, and secured it to her back. She put her helmet back on. “Wish us luck.”

“You won’t need luck, Guardian,” Osiris said. “You’ll need skill.”

Hermia glowered at him from behind the safety of her helmet.

“Good thing we’ve got that,” Romeo interjected before Hermia could dredge up enough spite to say something rude. “C’mon, Hermie. Let’s go check out that signal and leave Mister Grimdark here to his brooding.”

Hermia glanced at Romeo, then nodded, and the two of them headed toward Saint’s portion of the Sundial. Osiris watched them go wordlessly.

“He’s got a point, you know,” Sagira mused, and Osiris cut her a sharp look. She bobbed in a shrugging motion. “You _are_ pretty grimdark and broody.”

* * *

“ _Wow_ \-- this is Mercury, sure but -- Hermia, we’re back in the _Dark_ Age.”

“Really?” Hermia asked as she gently glided down from their landing zone.

“Yeah!” Romeo said excitedly. “This is _amazing_ , I wonder what we’ll find -- oop, wait a second. I’m picking up a broadcast on a -- wow, that is an _old_ frequency. Here, hold on a second.”

Hermia trotted around a corner as her comms filled with a voice she’d never heard.

“ _This is Saint-14 -- if anyone can hear me, turn back now. Zephyr Station is lost. It’s overrun with fallen. I will hold them off as long as possible_.”

“Saint-14?” Hermia asked, and she upped her pace to a run. “Ro -- where’s he at?”

“Take a right up here and follow the hall,” Romeo said. “I’m reading a couple fallen barriers, but he’s just beyond those.”

“Got it.” Hermia readjusted her grip on her pulse rifle and opened her comms. “Saint-14? I’m Hermia. I’m here to help you.”

“ _You’re who_?” asked Saint. “ _Never mind. You cannot come to me -- I’m surrounded. You’ve got to escape while you can._ ”

“Negative, titan,” Hermia said, and she tossed her arcbolt grenade into a group of dregs as she ran past. “I’m here to help, and that’s what I’m going to do. Just hang on a little bit longer.”

“ _I’ve already lost my colonists,_ ” said Saint despondently. “ _I will not lose a Guardian, too._ ”

“You won’t,” Hermia promised.

She blazed through the fallen and their barriers in less than two minutes, and soon she was rounding a corner into an enormous semi-circle yard crawling with fallen. In the center was the violet dome of a titan’s ward of dawn, and past that was a fallen walker shielded by a servitor that would have given Sepiks a run for its money. Hermia paused on the edge of the drop off that would take her into the fray. She took a deep breath.

“Okay,” she said, and she slung her pulse rifle around her back. “Okay, okay, okay.”

* * *

Saint-14 looked up at the sudden burst of light and sound above his ward. A stream of pure arc energy tore into the servitor’s eye, cracking its shell and filling it with sparking blue lightning. It rumbled and split open like a cracked egg, spewing arc energy and flames as it erupted in a fireball of smoke and light. Saint felt a ripple through his ward as a figure landed behind him.

“You must be Saint,” said a small, soft-voiced warlock as she peered around his outstretched arm. “I’m Hermia. I’m here to help.”

“Who _are_ you?” Saint asked. Hermia looked at him. He saw himself reflected in the visor of her helmet.

“A friend,” she said. “Sit tight. I’ll be right back.”

* * *

Hermia only needed to be resurrected by Romeo twice as she dispatched the remaining fallen and the walker. The walker took the brunt of her second chaos reach and exploded into electrified shrapnel. The fallen she picked off with her pulse rifle until the rest finally fled. Romeo flitted around her head, his eye pulsing with Light as he healed her minor scrapes and bruises from the firefight.

“Are you alright?” she asked Saint as he finally dropped his ward. He shook out his arms, tired from having held his shield for so long.

“I feel I should be asking _you_ that,” he said, and he clapped a strong hand on her shoulder. “That was quite the battle, my friend.”

“Oh.” Hermia pulled off her helmet. She smoothed down her hair. “I’m just a little sore, is all. But really -- are you okay, Saint?”

Saint sighed and stepped past Hermia and silently surveyed the shattered servitor and wrecked walker.

“We cannot keep doing this,” he said, shaking his head slowly. “ _I_ cannot keep doing this. Those fallen massacred my colonists -- the people I had sworn to protect -- and for what? So they might feel some small victory over humanity? Bah.”

He shook his head again.

“How many more colonists will I lose seeking a new home for the beleaguered of Earth?” he asked, looking up at the clouds. “No. None. I cannot do this again.”

Hermia looked at Romeo as he fizzled into sight next to her. She pressed her lips into a thin line and slightly inclined her head to him, brows raised. He bobbed back and forth, as though considering. She nodded again toward Saint.

“Saint,” Romeo said, floating forward. “We probably shouldn’t be showing you this, but technically we were never told _not_ to, so…”

His eye lit up and before them spanned a hologram of the Last City, with the Traveler gleaming above.

“This is the Last City,” Romeo said. “ _Our_ Last City.”

Saint stepped toward the hologram slowly, as thought it might frighten away.

“It’s a safe haven,” Hermia said. “Thousands of Lightless live in the City, and thousands more Guardians keep watch from the Towers. We hold festivals and remembrances, and children play in the streets.”

“ _This_ is the City you have to look forward to,” Romeo said. “But only if you keep doing what you do best.”

Saint stared at the hologram for a long moment. He closed his eyes and dropped his head, fingers curling into fists.

“I…don’t know if I can,” he said finally. Romeo blinked away the hologram and looked at Hermia. She stepped forward and set a gentle hand on Saints arm.

“You can,” she said, and she carefully pulled the shotgun from her back. She extended it to him. “It may take time, but I believe you’ll be every bit the hero I know you can be.”

He stared at the proffered gun for a moment, then took it from her and turned it over in his hands. She glanced at Romeo.

“It’s your decision, Saint,” she said, looking back to the exo. “Your life. You get to choose what to do with it. Who you want to be.”

She smiled at him, and Saint tightened his grip on the shotgun.

“Thank you, Guardian,” he said.

“We better go,” Romeo said in Hermia’s ear.

“Right,” Hermia said. She put her hand on Saint’s arm. “Stay safe, titan.”

* * *

The timeline fizzled away and Hermia found her footing on the Sundial. She pulled off her helmet as she approached Osiris.

“I don’t believe it,” he said, slowly shaking his head. Hermia blinked at him.

“Don’t believe what?” she asked.

“We were listening in,” Sagira said. “That was one of Saint’s first off-world missions you stepped into the middle of.”

“And one he never shut up about when we were younger,” Osiris said. His hood was back, and Hermia felt his amber eyes boring into her, even as she studiously stared at his bracers to avoid meeting them. “In particular, he loved to gush about the Guardian he met on that mission. It seems that Guardian was _you_ , warlock.”

“What?” Hermia snapped her gaze to Osiris’s finally, her orange eyes wide. “ _Me_?”

“I mean, Osiris _did_ say the Legion was trying to change the past to affect the future,” Romeo said. He jerked back a little and stared at Osiris, the points of his shell expanding away from his core in surprise. “Skies! _We_ didn’t change the future, did we?”

“Not that we can tell,” Sagira said. “But even if you had, we wouldn’t _really_ know, would we?”

That last part was said jokingly, but Romeo spun in panic.

“Trust me, Guardian,” Osiris said. “Your little trip didn’t change the future -- merely solidified the past.”

“Oh.” Romeo deflated a little, then heaved a powerful, “ _Whew!_ ”

“Wouldn’t we _not_ know if we changed anything anyway?” Hermia asked, hugging her helmet to her stomach. “Because we went back in time, anything you remember--” She turned her gaze to Osiris. “--would seem like the truth to you, even if it hadn’t been before.”

“Ooh. I don’t like that,” Sagira said. “I don’t like that at all.”

“We were monitoring your progress the entire time,” Osiris said. “If the timeline had changed, we would have caught it.”

“Would we have?” Sagira asked. “Or would we have seen it and then immediately forgotten because the Forest rewrite rewired our brains?”

“Sagira,” Osiris sighed, rubbing his eyes. “You know that’s not how the Forest works.”

“ _You_ don’t even really know how the Forest works,” Sagira retorted.

“Maybe that’s not it!” Hermia interjected. “I _really_ really don’t know how the Forest works, or the timelines, or any of that. I’m just here to help you try and save Saint’s life. Maybe you’re right, and all we did was give you some clarity as to who Saint was talking about all those years.”

“We _are_ right about that,” Osiris said. “I’m sure of it.”

“I’m not,” Sagira deadpanned. “Not anymore, anyway.”

“Hush.” Osiris folded his arms across his chest. “I believe what we saw was what Saint saw at Zephyr Station all those years ago. You saved his life that day, warlock. But I’m afraid to save it again is a far more impossible task.”

“I learned from Ophee a long time ago not to say anything was impossible until you’ve tried it once,” Hermia said. Osiris ruefully laughed and shook his head.

“Unfortunately, we have tried it,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of times. Sagira and I spent lifetimes in the Forest exploring every timeline we could find that involved Saint’s time on Mercury. I lost hundreds of projections during our quest, and still we came up empty handed. We never found the right timeline, the right Saint.

“I’m afraid,” Osiris said gravely, and Hermia could hear the heavy weight of grief in his voice. “Saint-14 is lost.”

Hermia straightened, gripping her helmet determinedly.

“I don’t believe that,” she said.

“Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant,” Osiris said. “ _Belief_ has nothing to do with the reality of the Forest, warlock. Saint is gone. Nothing can be done to change that.”

“Something can always be done,” Hermia insisted. “You didn’t have the signal to Zephyr Station until we pulled that shotgun out of the Sundial, and that signal led us to a timeline _you_ hadn’t explored yet. That means timelines you’ve never seen are still out there, and one of those is the right moment.”

“You could spend a millennium searching the Forest for the right moment in time,” Osiris said. “Without a path -- without a line, something to follow, something to guide you to the right moment, you’d lose yourself in minutes and be trapped for a lifetime.”

Hermia took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it through her nose.

“You--” She pinched her lips into an annoyed frown, then pointed her helmet at Osiris. “--are too dramatic.”

She strode past him toward the offshoot of the Sundial, the one that held the paths to explore Saint-14’s personal timeline on Mercury and in the Infinite Forest. Osiris leaned back in surprise and blinked. Beside him, Sagira barely concealed her quiet snickering.

“Guardian,” Osiris said, turning to track Hermia. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to find Saint-14,” Hermia said, not turning back to him. She stopped at the secondary Sundial’s control panel. “Ro? You still have that signal we tracked through the Forest to Zephyr Station?”

“Sure do,” Romeo said, spinning near the panel. Hermia thrummed her fingertips on the cool metal. “You think we should--”

“See if it matches up _anywhere_ else,” Hermia finished for him. “Either here on Mercury, in the Forest, on Venus, Nessus -- anywhere we’ve ever encountered the vex. Their portals can lead anywhere in the universe. If we can just _track_ Saint through their network, maybe we can--”

“I’ve got something!” Romeo said excitedly. “It’s faint -- _extremely_ faint, but I’ve matched up Saint’s signal with something on Nesus.”

“Then let’s go,” Hermia said, turning. Osiris hadn’t moved from his spot, hadn’t seemed to overhear them. She frowned at him and said nothing, merely shoved her helmet back on and strode out of the Sundial.

“Shouldn’t we tell them where we’re going?” Romeo whispered in her ear.

“No,” Hermia said petulantly. “If Osiris doesn’t want to believe we’ll find Saint, fine, but then I don’t believe I have to talk to him, so I’m not going to.”

“Hermie,” Romeo tutted as they transmatted onto her ship. “Don’t you think you’re being a little petty?”

“Maybe,” Hermia said, punching in the coordinates for Nessus. She gripped the controls and piloted toward atmo. “He started it.”

“Did he?” Romeo deadpanned.

“Yes, he did!” Hermia said. “Osiris is rude and extraordinarily pessimistic. I can see why they kicked him out of the City.”

“Well.” Romeo bobbed, considering. “I don’t think you’re wrong about his personality, but I do know he got exiled for way more than just being grumpy.”

“I don’t care,” Hermia pouted. “He’ll be lucky if I show him whatever it is we find on Nessus.”

Romeo nodded a little.

“I still can’t believe you said you knew Saint would turn out to be a hero,” he said after a few minutes of silence. “You didn’t even know who he was this morning.”

* * *

“They picked up a signal somewhere on Nessus,” Sagira informed Osiris as she scanned the offshoot’s control panel. She bobbed back and forth. “Looks like the warlock was right.”

“Doubtful,” Osiris said. “It will be another dead end, I’m sure.”

“You don’t know that,” Sagira said. “Can’t you have just a _little_ hope, Osiris?”

“Whatever hope I had of seeing Saint again is gone,” Osiris said. “I lost it exploring the Forest.”

He recalled two years ago, when he’d allowed that hunter to help him deal with Panoptes. The first Guardian Osiris had met since he’d left the City, she had surpassed every expectation Osiris had had of her, much to his surprise. And then, much to his grief, she had found Saint’s final resting place on Mercury, a solemn tomb enshrined with the armies of vex he had slain before finally losing his Light.

The hunter’s ghost had told him Saint’s Light was gone, but Osiris had stubbornly not believed her until he had visited the tomb himself. Then, Sagira had confirmed what he’d refused to believe: Saint was dead. He was gone forever.

Osiris had lingered in the tomb until Sagira gently asked if he was alright. He hadn’t replied.

Then, after the completion of the Sundial, Osiris had been hopeful again, however briefly. But that hope had been crushed with every wrong timeline explored, every Saint they found who railed against the Traveler, who wasn’t an exo, but human or awoken; every Saint who didn’t recognize Osiris. As the two years wore on, hope became scarce, and when it had washed away completely, Osiris shut down the Sundial.

“Osiris?” Sagira asked. Osiris shook his head.

“I won’t allow myself to live in some fantasy, Sagira,” he said tiredly. “I cannot endure false hopes. Not anymore.”

Sagira’s points drooped. She nudged Osiris’s cheek, then settled into the folds of his hood and snuggled against his neck.

“Y’know, you can just say you miss him, and I’d say I know,” she said. Osiris was quiet.

“I miss him,” he said after a moment.

“I know.”

* * *

“Hermie?”

Hermia cradled Saint’s dead ghost in her hands. She had hoped they would find something else on Nessus, another breadcrumb trail to help their quest to save Saint-14, another signal, another anomaly in the Forest; not this. Not Saint’s Lightless ghost.

“Hermia?” Romeo spun around her head. “Are you okay?”

Hermia closed her hands around the ghost and held it against her chest and dropped her head. Osiris was right -- what she was trying to do was an impossible task.

“What are we going to tell Osiris?” she asked finally, looking up at Romeo.

“We’ll just give him the ghost and…I dunno.” Romeo sighed. “Maybe we should ask Sagira before we show Osiris.”

“Maybe.” Hermia looked down at the dead ghost. “Can you scan it one more time? Just…just to be sure. Before we head back to Mercury.”

“Yeah,” Romeo said sadly. “Sure.”

He scanned the shell, reared back in surprise and zoomed forward to scan it again.

“Ro?” Hermia asked.

“I’m getting something!” Romeo said excitedly. “It’s…it’s _very_ faint. I almost missed it. But it’s definitely something.”

“A signal?” Hermia asked.

“Maybe,” Romeo said. “C’mon. Let’s see if it clicks with something in the Forest.”

* * *

They returned to Mercury to find the Sundial occupied by one of Osiris’s golden projections. Hermia pulled off her helmet as she came inside.

“Where’s Osiris?” she asked.

“Busy,” replied the projection. “Feel free to use the Sundial, warlock.”

“Thanks,” Hermia said, and she bee-lined for the offshoot. “Alright, Ro. Let’s see what we can find.”

“What are you doing?” asked the projection as it floated over. Hermia looked up at it as Romeo scanned.

“This is what we found on Nessus,” she said, and she gingerly pulled the dead ghost from her belt and extended it to the projection. It’s golden shoulders drooped and it said, “Ah.”

Hermia let the projection take the ghost.

“It was giving off a really faint signal we’re hoping we can pinpoint in the Forest,” she explained. “We were talking about it on the way here, and we figure if it’s a signal from Saint’s ghost, we might be able to find the right timeline to actually save him.”

“You’re fighting a losing battle, warlock.”

Hermia turned as Osiris himself strode onto the Sundial. His hand hovered above the dead ghost for a breath before he snatched it up and his projection vanished.

“You cannot save Saint-14,” Osiris said, distracted as he gently turned over the ghost in his hands. Hermia clenched her jaw and pinched her lips into an irritated pout.

“Just because _you_ couldn’t find him doesn’t mean we won’t,” she snapped, and she turned to Romeo and quieter she said, “ _Please_ tell me you have something.”

“I have something,” Romeo said, surprised. “By the Traveler, I think I found him.”

“Impossible,” Osiris said, but he didn’t sound angry, he sounded skeptical. Hermia whirled back to face him.

“Can you just _not_ for five minutes,” she said. Romeo zipped around in front of her and bumped into her nose to get her to step back.

“Alright, let’s go,” he said. “We’re going. We’re activating this Sundial and we’re leaving right now.”

“No, I’ve got something to _say_ \--” Hermia’s words were cut off as Romeo spun up the Sundial and the two of them shimmered out of sight. After a moment, Sagira materialized next to Osiris.

“You want to talk about it?” she asked.

“No,” Osiris said. “I don’t.”

* * *

“--and that’s you’re not very nice!”

Hermia found herself shouting into dark, damp air where she now stood on a rocky, uneven ground. She whipped around to take in her new surroundings.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Mercury. Near-present day, actually,” Romeo said. He looked down at her. “’Not very nice?’ That’s what you came up with?”

“I can’t think when I’m mad,” Hermia said as she shoved on her helmet. “Is that signal here?”

“Yeah,” Romeo fizzled away into her pouch. “Right up there.”

Hermia trotted up the short incline, and as she rounded the corner she saw a familiar titan standing there.

“Saint!” she called, and he snapped his attention to her.

“Guardian!” he exclaimed with all the recognition of greeting a long unseen friend. “Good to see you again, my friend!”

“I think we’re in the right place,” Romeo whispered in her ear.

“I was just about to send away my ghost,” Saint said as Hermia approached. “The vex have stolen my Light from me. I am going to get it back.”

“So _that’s_ how they managed to kill him.” Romeo sounded amazed and terrified that the vex had managed to accomplish a feat so great. Hermia pulled around her pulse rifle.

“Well. Why not let me help?” she asked. “Keep your ghost on you. We’ll take down these vex together.”

“That is why I like you, Guardian.” Saint moved to put a hand on her shoulder, but he jerked back with a shout and in a moment was gone.

“Saint!” Hermia shouted, and Romeo said, “Up there!”

Saint was trapped behind some kind of barrier on a central pedestal. Around him, vex energy began to pop and hiss, and soon dozens of vex began to teleport in. Among them was an enormous hobgoblin. Hermia took a deep breath.

“Okay,” she said, and she raised her pulse rifle. “Let’s save us a legend.”

It took a half dozen resurrections, twice as many nova bombs, and countless bullets and grenades to defeat the vex and tear down the defenses of the massive hobgoblin, until it was crackling from every broken joint, its head pulsing with lightning, its body leaking milk from all sides. Hermia blinked above the Martyr Mind and called on the void for a final, devastating punch. Her nova bomb traveled true and erupted against the hobgoblin and engulfed it in roiling purple energy. It collapsed into pieces, sparking and cracking and smoking for only a moment before it exploded, leaving nothing behind but pieces parts and an impressive crater.

Hermia blinked again and landed roughly on the ground, her knees unwilling to keep her upright after so much running and fighting.

* * *

“What?”

Osiris watched Geppetto’s shell shimmer and fizzle and disappear entirely from his hands. He stared at his empty palms for a long moment.

“It can’t be,” he said, voice silent as death. Sagira spun around his head.

“I think they did it,” she said. “Osiris -- I think they _did it_!”

* * *

“Here,” Romeo said, and he spun in front of Hermia, healing her sore muscles. From above came a joyous, booming laughter.

“And just like that, they are gone!” Saint laughed as he glided down to her. “You are truly a sight to behold, my friend!”

“Oh.” Hermia rubbed her arm. “It, um. It was nothing, really.”

“Nothing!” Saint barked. “You destroyed the Martyr Mind and its entire army and you say it was nothing! Hah! It is good that you are humble, my friend. It will keep you kind. But be sure to give yourself credit where it is due.”

“Um. Right.” Hermia nodded. “Are you okay?”

Saint threw back his head and laughed.

“Am I okay, she asks,” he guffawed. “Certainly! I can feel my Light has returned. I am glad I did not have to send Geppetto away after all.”

His ghost spun in the air next to him, and Hermia felt a swell of happiness seeing the ghost alive and moving. Her own ghost turned in a tight, nervous circle next to her.

“What if the vex try again, though?” Romeo asked. “To take your Light, I mean. Should we stay and help out?”

“That will not be necessary, my friend.” Saint set his hand on Hermia’s shoulder. “The vex poured everything they had into building the Marty Mind. To construct a second one would be impossible. No…when you killed it, they were doomed.”

He turned from Hermia as the sounds of more vex teleporting in on the plateau above echoed across the canyon. Hermia heaved a short sigh a readied her pulse rifle. Saint turned back to her.

“You should go, my friend,” he said. “You have done more than enough for me.”

“Why don’t you come back with us?” Romeo asked. He could feel the timeline was beginning to erode at the edges, like they had overstayed their welcome. Saint-14 shook his head.

“I cannot,” he said. “You have inspired me for centuries, my friend, ever since we first met at Zephyr Station. I could not abandon my duty to your memory by leaving this battle now. And…” Saint looked over her head, into the dark sky, as though searching for something. “…I have a mission here I have yet to finish.”

Romeo and Hermia exchanged a quick glance.

“Okay,” Romeo said. “We’ll just...leave the door open for you?”

“A good plan,” Saint said. “I will take the long way around.”

Hermia slung her rifle around her back and pulled Saint into a warm hug. He seemed surprised for a moment, then leaned down and picked her up and squeezed her so tight she couldn’t breathe. She _oofed_ when he set her back down.

“Thank you, my friend,” Saint said.

“You’re welcome,” Hermia croaked, trying to get her breath back. She coughed once as she straightened. “See you later, Saint.”

The timeline melted away and soon Hermia was standing once again on the Sundial. Osiris was on her in an instant.

“What happened?” he asked. Hermia plucked off her helmet and glowered at him.

“The impossible,” she said bluntly, and she strode past him and out of the Sundial, shoving her helmet back on as she went.

“I think he’s following us,” Romeo whispered in her ear as she stopped to pick off a few cabal to clear her path to the gate of the Infinite Forest.

“Probably coming to check our work,” Hermia grumbled, and she didn’t look back as she continued toward the gate.

“Guardian,” Osiris called.

“My name is Hermia,” she snapped back, and she threw a grenade into a cluster of vex and kept walking. Osiris, with his long stride, easily caught up to her much shorter gait. She ignored him as he walked alongside her. He said nothing for a long moment.

“Hermia,” he said finally. “I realize I may have been…condescending.”

“You’re just now realizing that?” Hermia deadpanned. Osiris said nothing for a few more strides.

“Do you know why Saint entered the Forest all those years ago?” he asked.

“To stop the vex from pouring out and invading every planet in the system?” Romeo ventured as he appeared above Hermia’s head. “At least that’s what I’ve heard.”

“Is that what the Vanguard says?” Osiris asked, shaking his head. “That is why _I_ entered the Forest. Saint…Saint entered because he was trying to find me.”

Hermia didn’t say anything, but she did finally look at Osiris. It was impossible to see his expression beneath his hood.

“Oh.” Romeo spun thoughtfully. “Because you used to be the Vanguard Commander? Did the Consensus back then, um…want you back?”

“I would sooner expect the vex to turn the other cheek than for the Speaker to allow me back into the City,” Osiris said. “No. I would be surprised to learn Saint’s mission had been sanctioned by the Consensus. I believe it was his first and only open act of rebellion against the Speaker.”

“Oh,” said Romeo. Hermia was watching Osiris openly now.

“Then why was he trying to find you?” she asked.

Osiris didn’t reply. They had reached the gate to the Forest.

“Osiris?” Hermia asked.

“Now we wait to see if you truly did achieve the impossible,” Osiris said.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Hermia said. The Forest gate flickered and pulsed, and a goblin careened through, sputtering and leaking milk as it twitched on the ground. It righted itself and tottered back toward the gate, only to be sent flying back by a powerful punch. Osiris pulled down his hood and took half a step forward.

“It can’t be,” he said quietly.

Saint-14 stepped through the gate, dragging another goblin by the leg. He came up short when he saw Osiris.

“It cannot be,” he said.

Saint left the dying goblin and slowly came forward. Osiris left Hermia’s side to meet him.

“Saint,” Osiris began, opening his arms, and Saint punched him in the jaw hard enough to stumble the warlock back two steps. Hermia and Romeo let out simultaneous exclamations.

“Oh!”

“ _Oof_.”

Osiris righted himself, rubbing his jaw.

“I suppose I deserved that,” he said.

“You deserve more than that,” Saint said. He pulled Osiris into a tight hug, lifting him off the ground. “Fortunately, I am willing to forgive you.”

“How generous,” Osiris grumbled, his arms trapped at his sides in Saint’s powerful embrace. Saint boomed with laughter and gently set Osiris down. He held Osiris at arms length, expression wholly unreadable beneath his helmet.

“It has been a long time,” Saint said finally.

“It has,” Osiris agreed.

“You have more gray in your hair.”

“And you look exactly the same.”

Saint said nothing for a moment. He slid one hand through Osiris’s hair and pulled him close, pressed their foreheads together and let out a quiet sigh.

“Ah.” Saint’s voice was barely audible. “I have missed you, _solnyshka_.”

Osiris closed his eyes and gently took Saint’s hand.

“When I left the Tower,” he began quietly, and Saint shushed him with a quiet, “Bah.”

“Let us speak of the past later,” Saint continued. “We both have apologies to make. But for now -- I believe thanks are in order.”

He straightened and looked over Osiris’s head at Hermia, who had tried to make herself as unseen as possible.

“Guardian!” Saint boomed, and Hermia visibly jumped. Saint waved her forward. “Come, come! Without you, none of this would be possible.”

“Oh.” Hermia shuffled forward, pulling off her helmet. She fluffed her flattened hair. “I was just, um. Doing what needed to be done.”

“Hah! Still very humble. I love that,” Saint said, and he set a heavy hand on Hermia’s shoulder. “But, my friend, I hope you will not sell your victory here short. What you have done today…well, I would not be here if not for you.”

“Oh.” Hermia turned her helmet nervously in her hands. “I mean. I guess, so. But Osiris is who built the, um. The Sundial…time-travel…thing.”

“ _Ab_ solutely not,” Romeo said, spinning furiously next to Hermia’s head. “Hermia, _you_ saved Saint-14. Not Osiris.”

“Ro,” Hermia hissed. “It’s fine--”

“It’s _not_ \--”

“He’s right.”

Hermia and Romeo snapped their attention to Osiris.

“As much as it may pain me to admit it,” Osiris said slowly. “You are the only reason Saint is here right now.”

Hermia blinked her wide orange eyes at him.

“Is that…” She hugged her helmet to her stomach. “Is that a ‘thank you’?”

Osiris sighed.

“Yes,” he said. “It is. Thank you, Hermia.”

Saint threw back his head and laughed, and he wrapped his arm around Osiris’s shoulders and rattled him a couple times.

“You have been bestowed a great honor, indeed!” he told Hermia, his voice brimming with cheer. “To have Osiris’s gratitude is a rare gift. And to have mine as well is truly something special. May we find many more occasions to thank each other, my friend.”


End file.
